Famous Panama Straw Hats

The Panama Straw hats have always been manufactured in Ecuador. They are hand made using the best golden toquilla.

Hand Made Panama Hats

Search:

This is Ecuador's most famous export and this natty piece of head wear with an identity crisis has been woven in the southern sierra (highlands) and on the coast of this country for more than a century.

Panama Hats History

The confusion over the origin dates back to the sixteen century, after the Spaniards took possession of the Isthmus of Panama, they heard about the richness of the South.

It is then that they decided to expand their conquest. Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro reached the lands of present-day Ecuador in 1526, and in 1534 they founded the Royal Audience of Quito.

Later on, these Panama hats were sent abroad through the Panama Channel, thus receiving this name. However, they were originated on the Ecuadorian coast, specifically in the small town of "Montecristi" in the province of Manabi.

Archaeological discoveries of ceramic figurines wearing strange hats have been made on the Ecuadorian coasts.

Legend tells that the Spaniards discovered a strange headgear that some of the South American natives wore, and they thought that this translucent material was vampire skin.

In the mid-19th century gold seekers from the east coast of the US heading for the California gold rush picked up the Panama straw hats on their way out west.

Fifty years later, workers on the Panama Canal found them as ideal protection against the tropical sun and, like the forty-niners before them, named them after the point of purchases rather than their place of origin. And the name stuck.

Also you can find these wonderful hats in the colonial City of Cuenca these are Panama straw hats of the highest quality.

The genuine article should hold water as surely as a glass and, when rolled up, should be slim enough to pass through a wedding ring.